Kategoria BISAC: Religion >> Holidays - Christian

The incunabulum Peregrinatio in terram sanctam by Bernhard von Breydenbach, which appeared in 1486, is the first printed and illustrated travelogue. It provides one of the most important sources for studying medieval contact between religions on the threshold of the Modern Age. Besides sketches in the form of diary entries, theological reflections and precise observations of countries and peoples, the text also contains an agitational polemic on Islam, which bears witness to the horror felt in Christendom at the Turkish conquest of Constantinople. The present edition is the first...

The liturgical year is a relatively modern invention. The term itself only came into use in the late sixteenth century. In antiquity, Christians did not view the various festivals and fasts that they experienced as a unified whole. Instead, the different seasons formed a number of completely unrelated cycles and tended to overlap and conflict with one another. In early Christianity, the fundamental cycle was that of the seven-day week. Taken over from Judaism by the first Christians, this was centered on Sunday rather than the sabbath. As the early Church established its identity, the days...

The mere mention of "Sunday" will immediately conjure up a rich mix of memories, associations, and ideas for most anyone of any age. Whatever we think of-be it attending church, reading a bulky newspaper, eating brunch, or watching football-Sunday occupies a unique place in Western civilization. But how did we come to have a day with such a singular set of traditions?

Research on pilgrimage has traditionally fallen across a series of academic disciplines - anthropology, archaeology, art history, geography, history and theology. To date, relatively little work has been devoted to the issue of pilgrimage as writing and specifically as a form of travel-writing. The aim of the interdisciplinary essays gathered here is to examine the relations of Christian pilgrimage to the numerous narratives, which it generates and upon which it depends. Authors reveal not only the tensions between oral and written accounts but also the frequent ambiguities of journeys -...